piranha
Americannoun
-
piranhas,
plural
-
piranha
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of piranha
1865–70; < Portuguese < Tupi
Explanation
A piranha is a fish with famously sharp teeth. Don't go swimming in certain South American rivers if you want to avoid piranhas! These freshwater fish are terrifyingly described as "voraciously carnivorous," meaning they eat meat with great enthusiasm. Humans aren't often bitten by piranhas, but it does happen in some parts of South America. You also can't buy a piranha as a pet in many parts of the world — and if you do, it's best not to get two of them, since the weaker fish is often killed by the stronger one.
Vocabulary lists containing piranha
English Words Derived from Indigenous Languages of the Americas
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Amazing Animals, List 1
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South America - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In August 2024, Banksy painted piranha fish on a City of London Police sentry box.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
As Richard, the deceased father of Jenna Ortega’s Astrid Deetz, Santiago Cabrera got a combination of prosthetics and makeup for the puppet piranha fish biting at his face, neck and body.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2024
White once said her character Sue Ann Nivens in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” could be “icky-sweet” but was “really a piranha type.”
From Washington Times ● Dec. 31, 2021
It becomes a big floaty bullfight, or — with enough players — a piranha feeding frenzy.
From The Verge ● Oct. 14, 2021
He dreamed the ants crawling all over his hummingbird feeder and clogging it with their bodies were a special kind of Milagro piranha ant.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
It comes a day after painted swimming piranhas on to a City of London Police sentry box, which was first spotted on Sunday morning.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2024
We paddled through flooded forests looking for anacondas and fished for piranhas along a small creek.
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2023
"We're on an island and pieces are being chipped away by piranhas in the water," he said.
From Salon ● Jan. 10, 2023
Known as vegetarian piranhas, pacu can reach up to 1 meter long.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 4, 2023
“No doubt it would be a grand adventure,” she interjected, for she had no wish to dream about flesh-eating piranhas that night; the murderous pheasants had been bad enough.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
